FREESTYLE is a culture.
mainly still dubed as freestyle music and a latinhiphop culture...still due to the respect of how all this began.
It began as a wave of musical experimantation that rose out of the hiphop movement of the early 80's and clashed with the dance wave from rock bands turned disco that was coming from Europe.
punk, new wave, funk, r&b, salsa, jazz all played a role in the devolopment of the sound, melodies and even lyrics of what would later be known as freestyle dance music.
this then clashed with latin urban culture/ the latino presence and cultural influence inthe way of talk, dress, walk etc in club and street culture (from the mid 70's to early 80's)...and all this was infused into the music, even by those who were not of latin culture. For many years latin second generation culture would clash and many times over lap with dj, club, street, art cultures that have already existed the previous decade. But more importantly the freestyle culture reflected the second generation participation and contributions to those cultures,even american pop mainstream culture.
The freestyle culture was that of a latin one, but hard to pigeon hole. latinfreestyle or latin hiphop culture was an american culture. Hispanic kids growing up in major cities of the U.s (miami, new york, l.a. etc). The language was always english and spanglish first.
Too modern for traditional latin culture..to exotic and not mainstream compared to the already established "american" culture.
And Due to all this..it was expressed in our art, which was also graph culture. it was expressed in our dancing, wich was also a mix from everything to webo dancing to break dancing poping and locking (crazy legs and the mojority of most breakers in new york were also prodominantly boriqua or hispanic or were enough around it to know and recorgnize). It was expresed in the music, wich was dance music (club) and street music (rap) hiphop (just as it continues to do so today). It was expressed in our cars ,Lowriders.
Freestyle had alot to do with the early 80's hiphop movement and people tend to forget that hiphop wasnt only rap music. it was many cultures and ethnicities clashing and intertwined.
freestyle in all its forms was our ballads, was our dance music, was our club music, was our street music. it was the voice for all things that were culturaly freestyle.
it was in due time that all forms, especially through the music lines, would evolve on thier own and in the hands of a industry...segregated and marketed to specific crowds..in years alienating scenes from each other and misleading diferent scenes on how they were really connected.
Although Freestyle culture is prodominantly a Latin one, it is not fair for all freestyle people and lovers to accept to easely as NOT ALL WITHIN THE CULTURE WERE LATIN (Hispanics).
from the fashions to the slang, to the food that was eaten..they all over laped and was shared with other cultures.
Although not hispanics, italian americans from new york have been a part of this since day one . many helped open the doors, and shared the latin identity as well. many also came from mixed backgrounds (like most of us do) and related to what was going on in the club and street at diferent time periods the many waves would flourish themselves.
just like jazz was an african american art form and was mostly surounded by the african american experiences and daily life..all the way from the rice fields of luisiana.. to the opera houses in new orleans......it all came together from a mixture of all kinds of diferent forms of art and culture....a lil europeanlatin (through french influences) a lil u.s. military from the armed forces settling there, the black church was added in there also.
I can even jump ffrwd to Rock n roll and the culture the rock n roll the 50's had. how it was mostly a black form of music out of a basment of a church and was mixed with the clash of white country music and african american blues.
but like jazz and rock n roll.... in time and through the industry it lost its main culture. bythe time it became pop or mainstream recognized.. it was already seen as a whole diferent culture.
Freestyle culture , unlike hiphop, didnt really rely on race, but ethnicity and the recognition of that ethnicity. for the same reason the latinhiophop movement of artist in the early to mid 80's was very important to so many. IT FURTHER DEVELOPED THE FREESTYLE SOUND AND CREATED ITS OWN MUSIC INDUSTRY. IT CREATED AN ESTABLISHED DANCE MUSIC INDUSTRY THAT COVERED RADIO, TV, magazines ETC AT A TIME WHEN LATINOS AND THE DANCE MUSIC COMMUNITY (both u.s and European) HAD NOTHING AT A TIME WHEN WE WERE STILL BATTLEING THE "DISCO SUCKS" MOVEMENT.
people have forgoten that.
the movement's cultural ways of dress, talk, and musical influences spilled over in all forms and created demand and started influnceing Hi nrg,R&B to rap records with a latinisms.
allof a suden being latin or from the carabean was a craze in the early to mid 80's..
It was the sound and movement that would pave the way for the sound and artist like Gloria estefan.
since back then, through freestyle history, the irony is that freestyle first conceptions were that of african american influences through electro funk overlaping to the later R&B dance from the early 80's. most of these artist were over looked (still are) or continued to the R&B lines, forgeting about the freestyle sound.
freestyle had a large african american following as well.
It is ironic how that following and its culture clash with the Hispanic urban influnences was so vocal and so abvious, that by the mid 90's what was left of that traditional freestyle scene was now seen as an "white" form of suburban music. dominated at the time through freestyle large Italian Movement/wave of artist that rose out of Philly, new jersey , the tri-state area and canada.
For a long time..there was a huge culture clash within the freestyle comunity. it was no longer seen as a hispanic cultural movement. it had a total diferent cause. it was seen as what in ceartain regions they would call "guido music" or "Gino beats".
the cultural cause was not the same as the previous waves. In the hispanic areas, the youth that grew up with the original movement were growing older and they saw alot of thier icons sellout and run shamefully from the freestyle scene they built.(till this day still ashamed to use the "freestyle" word). They did not feel as strongly or felt represented by the new wave of artist. many felt that these artist would of represented the latin hiphop movement as much as elvis presley, frank senatra, or Joe dimagio.
But in fact what they were representing was the strong love,suport and presence the italian american community has always had for freestyle music since the beginning. They also were there, they also were as much a part of it and for the same reason the fact could of not been argued. aside from that..it was mostly the hispanic wave of producers in the tri-state area who left the scene. the irony: the main players /purist for the hipanicic stronghold in the tri-state region were not hispanic themselves. they were also italian,who grew up in the barrios of new york.
(to this day a contreversial and touchy subject.)
the whole movement, way of dress and art changed completely during that time. the hispanics that were still in the game would later re invade the scene through new influnces of mixtures with house and trip hop/breaks.
as far as non, musical cultural contributions, the new wave of hispanic artist took the sound back to the street, back to dj culture, away from the suburbs and back to the clubs.back to the electro undergound.
many have come back now since then (it was 9 years ago) and are now influencing the freestyle scene with new ways of culture. a clash of 80's, a clash of rave culture ,house culture, rediscovering the hispanic and african american cultural ways of dress, art, fashion etc and infusing it in the nu-freestyle. break dancing is back and has alwaya been back. but now more often seen in freestyle break parties. car culture is also on the rise and growing in popularity.
as far as ethnicity, once latin (hipanic and italian), Freestyles cultural identity has crossed far and has now included influences and participations from many cultures and ethicities that are now intergrating with the scene as the times are once again changing. we have had waves of artist from the large Philipino (a youth) from sanfransisco and the west coast (who like hispanics share that background history when the spanish invaded the lands), the greek community,canada's community. freestyle has crossed over and now has contributions from germany, the u.k., france, spain, etc.
freestyle is a culture, it is a rich historic over view of music and cultural evolution that crosses and examines all kinds of clutural and ethnical lines and how those lines infuse and inspire our poetry and songs, our painting, murals and sculptures. our sound, our fashion, our art expresed through visuals in the world of television, internet and performance art.
as i speak, there is a discovery merging. a new generation is rediscovering all that freestyle once was and will re-infuse the scene, within the wave of artist and other art forms that will flourish out of the nu-freestyle.
as far as expresing a hispanic cultural boom in the freestyle game, ther is many who already started productions and opened or re-opened labels. the same figures that were allhere in the beginning are finding themselves back and aligning themselves with a new generation.
what has changed and will be diferent is that we are now global.
freestyle is a global culture and has a following from many countries. the nu-freestyle, unlike the old freestyle, cannot rely on ethnicity alone. it has to rely on a clash of global cultures and express all forms of art that express the strugle and at the same time apeal to all who apreciate Music culture..in all its forms.
Freestyle in all has been one of the most dificult genres and cultures to explain. It alone is so complex...for the same reason no one else would of really been able to answer the question "non musicaly..what is freestyle?".
In reality.....freestyle non musicaly and culturaly is a feeling. its a pride you wake up with. Its a sence of joy and pain intertwined.
its your look to the past and into the future. its the energy you get from watching a world around you and having the energy to dream. it is the feeling that only through music, you can escape. only through lyrics you can release.
it is the call of melodies through ancestors that rises out of your soul. your heart beat is a drum that has been pounding hard for 5 hunderd years. it is culturaly a passion. the yearn to love, the yearn to hate.the need to cry. the feeling of a broken heart and the feeling of what it is to lose your soul over and over again. the need to relate and find comfort inthe sound that only a soul could understand.
the feel to dance and release tension. the need to belong, yet be unique.
And you express all this in poetry, song lyrics, painting, graph, car, musical expression through intrumnets or (our instruments, tables and vinyle)even the food you prepare every evening.
freestyle culture is the ways of life we all relate to each other within the realm of street and club life. the same experiences and patterns that a generation before us already went through. In many ways is conditionaly learned or pased on. and this is shared with all of us in this community, depsite all our diferences.
we are one.
This music industry is based on entertiament. but in reality it is dificult to seperate the entertainment pasrt of a genre and its cultural part. For this reason pasrts of the industry dont really understand freestyle or understand why in its worst of times still surviving.
they dont know how to market or reach that crowd. the freestyle following. they cant really market something they know nothing about. freestyle labels of the 80's were made by the movement and for the movement. a brand ne label today without that background would have a hard time marketing and understanding freestyles cultural and ethnical roots.
like hip hop, jazz and country...even punk rock (in some cases)..they all reflected a cultural or ethnical element in thier music. race or patriotism to a country. so it is easy to market that to those markets. trance today is marketed as a European form, although many hav sampled breaks and melodies from the over looked dance classics from the U.s., especially when they harbor and mingle in miami's trance scene (infused with freestyle harmonies). House music core audience is marketed towards the gay market first, as most dance music has since the rise of disco.
freestyle's market, which was once motly hispanic, isnt targeted to hipanics anymore. despite that 85 % of the scene is hispanic..the feel to not let fans feel excluded is the means for not doing so.
unlike hip hop or punk rock or trance..freestyle isnt a patriotic or racial market..its an ethnical one. yet alone is many ethnicities rolled into one. therefore is dificult to market , for those who dont really undertsand it.
which in most cases is why many still are loyal to classics (cuz they feel safe) and listen to latin (spanish radio) midday mix shows to get a taste of what once was.
yes, freestyle had a culture and once again will have a new one as the times develop.they will be expresed in many ways beyond just music.
most important as any art form cultural,ethnical or not...as an art form will be and enjoyed by all as all art and music globaly is.
I hope you have a headache from reading this just as much as i have from writing this.
when it comes to talk about freestyle and culture..it is a touchy subject to many due to the factthat the ethnical lines and diferences will rise up. and that causes tension, discomfort and at times querels within our community. some people would not touch the subject, as they feel there is no need to talk about something that can rock a boat.
at the same time not talking about facts in our history leads to ignorance and is harder to find answers and solutions.
but yes,,, freestyle has a culture and a very strong one.
for years the music had been dead (until breaks), otherthan that it has been the culture and the communty that has kept this genre strong and alive.
JONPITO
p.s. this is one of those touchy post. so i do feel and hope that those sensative to the subject are not ofended in any way.
it is a form of thought and knowledge shared within our circles that is now bieng shared with you guys.
the onely reason i posted here, was that no one else could answer the question.
next!!!
